Always Be With You
by iamgeekachu
Summary: PostStars. A thousand year war will draw in the earth's Sailor Warriors, and bring back a long dead one...
1. Awakening! A Warrior's Return

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any character, location, important concept, etc. that you recognize as being copyrighted/published. I just like to play with them.

_Awakening! A Warrior's Return_

"_I shall keep your heart…safe with mine…"_

ooooooooo_  
_

"…_one thousand years to the hour…"_

ooooooooo_  
_

"…_my little maiden…time to wake up…"_

Dark. Weightlessness. Nothing. She was drifting, in an endless sea of inky blackness. Just as she had for…an infinite amount of time. There was no time. But something had changed. For now she was aware that she was drifting in this space.

Pain. This was something new. She wasn't used to being in pain, not since the last time, an eternity ago…Her head was pounding – no, not her head; it was _sound_. She was _hearing sound_ for the first time in a thousand years. Nothing too descript; just strange, monotonous noises in the background.

She was aware of a background now. There was something. Something other than the black oblivion she had grown accustomed to.

Her eyes burned. She felt them, and it was terrifying. She felt motion, and she wasn't floating anymore. There were confines now; she felt a body – her body. She was in a body now and was no longer floating in nothingness.

Slowly – and very painfully – her sense of touch awakened. Her skin felt ridden with pinpoints of icy pain. She felt a surface beneath; she was lying on something hard and flat. And so very cold. She shivered.

There was time now. She was somewhat aware of the passage of time. She knew that some length of time had passed since she recognized her link to a body, however distorted that perception was. Images flooded her mind now. She remembered; only bits and pieces, random images that vaguely made some sense. They were distant and fleeting memories of the distant, fleeting past. But they couldn't help her now; she had no idea where she was now.

She tried in vain to curl her fingers, finding the joints and ligaments in discordance.

… _body … atrophied … dormant so long…_

A minute or an hour later, she gained back full consciousness. In this newly awakened state, she attempted to open her eyes. They burned as she did, so she closed them again, and waited. The second time proved more successful; she could keep them open, fiery pain though they caused her. But she saw nothing; it was dark as the oblivion she had awakened from.

She slowly moved her arm to the side, only to be stopped by an unseen barrier. The same happened with her other arm. _A box_, she concluded.

More fear set in as she came to realize the tightness of the space. She started to struggle, only to find that she was in some way strapped to where she was at the waist and feet and legs. She panicked and fought her binds. _Snap!_ -- She tore her feet free.

She was very frightened, she acknowledged to herself. But then again, who wouldn't feel terror at waking in a dark, cold, tight space, with nothing to see and nowhere to move? Who knew what was in that darkness? And what was beyond it could be far worse still… Images floated to the surface to her consciousness and she was powerless to stop those fragments of a broken memory. She vaguely remembered darkness from some distant past, albeit a far more horrific darkness…the memory was painful, so she pushed it away. There was the here and now to think about at present.

With the knowledge that escape was possible, and therefore probable, she calmed her pulse down and began to work on detaching the rest of her body…

ooooooooo

The stones of the ancient temple seemed to vibrate with the grating noise that filled the structure. The ageless stone sarcophagus in the corner, dusty and long forgotten -- tucked away behind the more…recent…additions to the mausoleum -- had begun to move. Rather, its cover began to slide off by some force from the inside. A shaking hand appeared from the crack in the stone to push the cover the rest of the way off.

The hand was followed by an arm and finally a head and neck. The doll-like curls were dark against porcelain skin, matted and disheveled after the owner's millennium-long rest.

With much effort of her long-useless limbs, the girl climbed out of the sarcophagus, and doubled over, her breathing ragged from the effort.

Her child's body shuddered; her bare feet were numb and blue on the freezing stone floor. Her once lovely silky white gown was threadbare, though it was clearly never meant for the cold; the ratty straps still holding the garment up indicated that further still.

The golden locket hanging from her neck by a delicate chain, though it looked fragile and delicate itself, seemed to weigh her down.

Her eyes were a dull gray from exhaustion; so badly she wanted to go back to sleep…

But she pressed on, with an unknown determination, outside into the snow…

ooooooooo

She discovered that she was in a strange alien world, unlike anything she had ever seen, though in her current condition of mind, that was not much anyway.

There was strange painted stone everywhere, atop which moved giant shiny beings at great speeds. Despite the freezing cold and what she recognized from some distant memory, there was pointy green vegetation abundant. Trees – and they sparkled with hundreds of little lights, right on the branches! Outside they were, but inside buildings, behind glass, too! Buildings were as tall as a thousand men and people wandered this world in animal pelts. Some were laughing, others simply in too much of a hurry to notice too much of anything. She even saw a few speaking curiously into their…hands?

She had momentarily forgotten her fear in favor of awe, and interest in this peculiar environment. She questioned what was there before her eyes, and for a second thought she may still be dreaming in her little stone cradle.

Though still in her state of inadequate dress for the weather, she decided to explore a bit. She joined the stream of people.

"Hey! Watch where you're going! Stupid kids…"

She bumped into someone. Another someone in the crowd of people rudely shoved her aside with a curse. _Not very friendly…._

She walked on a bit in the crowd until the cramped space proved to be too much and she stepped off of the sidewalk and into the entrance to a park, it seemed. In a fleeting thought it occurred to her that she missed the heat the strangers had inevitably provided in the crowd.

She walked for a while through the park. Though these trees were bare of their green leaves, the snow glittered in the moonlight and so the seemed to sparkle – a different, quiet, kind of beauty, like nothing she could recall ever having seen.

The tranquility of the scene was suddenly interrupted by a scream. She didn't know what came over here but she sprinted towards its source, an unknown power commanding her movements.

There, in a little clearing, was a giant beast of some sort, black as night, made of coarse fur-like matter. It smelled her approaching, and turned its beastly head towards her, revealing glowing yellow eyes devoid of anything but lust for blood. Blood of the human girl, too shocked to even scream now, beneath its clawed paws.

A short distance away, a man stood calmly, seeming a passive onlooker at a museum.

"Ahh how nice! Two in one night! Perhaps you have the blood we seek…? Take her."

The beast followed the command without hesitation and pounced, a tiger lunging for the mouse.

She was too afraid to move; her feet were rooted to the snowy turf.

But the star around her neck had other plans. It began to glow a golden light, faint at first and then it suddenly flashed a powerful energy that threw the now howling creature back.

He glared at her; "What illusion is this?!"

_Did it protect me…?_

And then something began to happen to the little gold star, and its wearer. It glittered and washed the area in golden light and when the light ebbed, in its stead stood a very different girl than the one before.

The curls of her hair were refreshed and shined. Beautiful ribbons swirled around her. She wore a white bodice, with a collar and skirt of black and gold. On her back were soft white wings, and on her chest were a small matching pair. And where the wings joined was the golden star.

A deep glare this time: "Who are you?"

"I am…" she stammered, "I am…"

She had no idea. Her memory showed her only fragments of what seemed to be unrelated events and she had no inkling as to who, much less what, she was. No name, unknown past, uncertain future…she wanted to cry right then and there.

"…_speak your name…brave warrior! Sailor Solaris!"_

She met the demon's fiery eyes dead on with fiery ones of her own:

"A soldier for a shining star, I am Sailor Solaris! And you're really pissing me off! Die!"

Her voice was raspy from disuse. She was speaking as someone else then: those words didn't seem here own, and who knew what the hell a "Sailor," Solaris or otherwise, was?

"Ha-ha! Nice try! But my Queen destroyed Solaris over a thousand years ago! Your game of pretend will cost you. Good luck trying to take down my demon!"

But then her body launched, with a will of its own, or at least borrowed strength, at her attacker. She leaped, her knees tightly bent in midair, as a long whip appeared in her right hand. No sooner had she landed than she maneuvered her whip to entangle the offending beast's neck. A thin, elegant sword manifested itself into her left hand now, and an unseen force thrust the arm and weapon into the choking creature.

Black blood poured from fatal wounds as Solaris ripped out the sword with a twist. The demon let loose a pitiful moan, fell to the ground, and stirred no more.

Too shocked and angry to say anything, the man disappeared into the shadows, as the body of the demon disintegrated into ash, and then nothing at all. The woman under attack had long since run away, finding a perfect opportunity during the battle.

Solaris fell to her knees as her weapons disappeared to where they had come from, followed soon by her odd skirted uniform, replaced instantaneously by her ragged silk dress.

"…_you must fight the demons…Sailor Solaris…Hikarino Emi…"_

"Hikarino…Emi…I am…" She was out cold.

Everything that night had happened so fast and she could no longer keep up with all of these new sensations. And the strange voice she alone seemed to hear wasn't helping either. She was exhausted; her body shut down. But it was unwise to fall asleep in such an open place. Who knew what kind of person might come across her in her comatose state?

Who knew Tsukino Usagi witnessed the battle from behind a bush?

A/N: thanx for reading! wow, ok so this is the first story I've finally mustered up the guts to stick online for others to read. Please be nice! I was encouraged by a good friend. I promise to post the next part if my feedback is good ;)


	2. Unknown Soldiers! Double Disputes

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any character, location, important concept, etc. that you recognize as being copyrighted/published. I just like to play with them.

Unknown Soldiers; Double Disputes

Tsukino Usagi was reluctant to believe her eyes. A new Senshi?! It seemed impossible. Luna had never spoken of such a person, nor did she remember ever knowing about her from her life in the Silver Millennium.

Was it possible she was a fake? It wasn't unheard of. In fact, it was just recently that Galaxia had used her powers and her minions to steal the star seeds of talented, but otherwise average humans, in effect turning them into vulgar imitations of Sailor Soldiers.

But this didn't seem to be the case here. Whoever this girl, now lying unconscious in the snow, was, the glow that had come from her little locket was pure, and though Usagi had not been there to see the entire event, she could clearly tell two things: that the dark creature and the man commanding it were up to no good, and that Solaris had been their enemy.

So more likely than not, Solaris was not evil. She could even be one of them! The Soldiers of love and justice! Who was to say is couldn't be so?

Usagi was happy; perhaps she had found a new friend and Soldier.

oooooooooooooooo

After a good ten minutes of thinking and another five of trying to wake the unconscious girl, all in vain, Usagi decided to ferry her piggybacking the seven blocks to her house. A once-over of the girl, suggesting her frail appearance to reveal a consistent weight, proved to be quite accurate; she really did weigh next to nothing. 

Usagi would figure out what to tell her family when the situation arose, meaning when she thought of a plausible excuse…

Oooooooooooooooo

Hikarino Emi was dreaming. In her dream she was floating, being carried by strong arms. She was pressed against his chest, but she could see nearly nothing of his face, only that he had smooth skin, a good jaw, and not a single hair to be found there, though she found her own hand wrapped in one of his dark curly locks.

Though the desert heat beneath them seemed to be rising upwards, she felt cold, and very lethargic. The wind burnt her face and bare arms, and flaming debris was flying through the air, singing her skin and fine silk gown. A warm whispering voice was soothing to her sleepy ears.

"…one thousand years to the hour…"

"_I shall keep your heart…safe with mine…"_

The dream began to fade, the soft, rich voice growing softer, and fainter, like velvet stretching threadbare…

The dream receded, but Emi still floated. Bounced almost. And a wind persisted in burning the skin of her face and arms.

It was the cold that drew her from her sleep. She cracked open a cloudy green eye.

She discovered that she _was_, indeed, moving. And though she was not being cradled in the arms of a man, she _was_ being carried on the back of another being, another female from what she could tell of the waist and neck her legs and arms, respectively, were draped around.

It was fully night now; all twilight had faded to diamond-studded black. Even in the dark, she could tell that the person she was inconveniencing had long golden hair; one such pigtail was partially obscuring her already foggy vision, and slowly but surely creeping into her slackened mouth. Too bad she didn't have the energy to move it away.

The person continued onward, oblivious to the half awakened state of her passenger, mumbling something about manga, rice cakes, and a bath.

With nowhere to go, and no means to do so had she wanted to, Emi surrendered once more to the welcomed void of unconsciousness.

Oooooooooooooooo

Emi awakened again, but this time she was lying still on a soft, and non-moving, surface. She felt that she was lying on her side, quite comfortably. Possibly the most comfortably that she could remember. She felt strange, however; something was different, missing…

Warm. She was warm. The accursed cold and wind had somehow disappeared while she was out. She must have been indoors somewhere….

The girl. The one who carried her. That person must have brought her there, where ever she was.

She dared to open her eyes, still not entirely rested, and peer around at her location.

Pink. Rabbits. Table. Blankets. She was atop a fuzzy pink blanket, with a smaller one covering her. She propped herself up on one elbow.

There were toy rabbits scattered around the room, as well as some picture ones decorating the blanket she was on top of. On the table – a desk, really – beside the bed were papers and books of sorts. There was a picture in a frame there, too…The faces…they were familiar somehow…

"You're awake. I'm glad."

A teenager stood in the doorway. She was smiling a warm smile that reached her eyes and illuminated her whole face.

Emi noticed right away that her hair was very long indeed. The source of the pigtails was a couple of bizarre buns, tied with pink ribbons. The girl herself was small in stature; the much too large shirt that hung on her frame only accentuated her miniscule height. But her body language was welcoming, optimistic. Though not completely at ease, Emi was relieved at least, in finding no threat from the being before her vulnerable form.

"My name is Tsukino Usagi. Do you have a name?"

Usagi had decided still on her way over to be extra gentle with her charge. She didn't know anything about this girl: her age, her parents, anything. She didn't know why she was barefoot, or why her dress was so ratty, or why on Earth she was wearing such a thing to begin with, being as it was winter…

At first Emi could not comprehend the sounds that emerged from the teen's mouth. She panicked for a moment. But then, something she could not have predicted happened.

The words became right as rain, clear as her own voice in her own mind, had she chose to utilize it in that way. She understood perfectly that she had been told a name and in turn, asked if she had one as well. But she _understood_. In fact, not only had she understood the meaning, but also she could tell the girl's surname from her family name.

As she pondered it, flipping the idea around in her mind, she was smacked by the memory of the battle. She had spoken then, and was understood. Had it been the same form of speech? The same language? She knew of languages, but no many languages themselves…Only the one her thoughts had been in…had it been this one which the girl used?

No, no…head hurting…not ready for such strenuous thinking…at least not yet. She decided to throw her doubts and worries to the proverbial wind for the moment, and just go with it.

"I am…I'm…Emi. Hikarino Emi." No need to mention to her this Sailor Solaris identity.

Usagi beamed; she hadn't expected a straight answer without hostility. The small girl before her seemed shaken, but nothing close to anger.

"Where am I?"

"I found you…walking home through the park…you were fainted in the snow. Oh I know! I bet you'd love a hot bath! And a snack! We have rice cakes, and Mama just baked a pie today, if Shingo hasn't eaten it all yet…rotten little sneak…"

Emi was still for a second, and then felt the overwhelming urge to laugh. Usagi's friendly demeanor, and slight inability to stay on topic, was suddenly very welcome. She gave in to her laughter.

"…always stealing my food!...Ah hahaha! Shingo is my little brother! Sorry! But let's find you some clean clothes and you can take a bath down the hall…um am I forgetting anything? Please be my good friend."

She wasn't sure of her location, or time, or even her name, but Emi was sure that the radiance emanating from Tsukino Usagi was nothing short of genuine; she trusted her, and returned the smile.

"Great!" Usagi padded over to a chest of drawers in a corner, pulling open one and retrieving a white towel. "Take this and the bathroom is down the hall, last door on the left, while I find you something to wear. We can share my room, is that ok?"

Emi could do nothing but smile and nod. She stood up on unsteady legs, sparing one more glance at Usagi, rummaging in another drawer, mumbling about ice cream, before following her directions to the bath…

Oooooooooooooooo

While she couldn't recall ever seeing anything like the bathroom she saw, common sense served her well; she had little trouble figuring out how to run the bath water, even control its temperature.

She looked around the small space as she waited for her bath to fill up. There were colorful bottles and all sorts of various objects scattered about.

Emi discovered that she could read with ease. Who knew there were so many different kinds of soap, and all for distinctly different purposes? There was a tube for the face, a bottle for the body, and a bar for the face. And there were several bottles for the hair. From what she understood, these bottles all did something different to the hair, whether it was to somehow add more, or make it curl.

The bath was near full, the water balmy and holding no spite. She would debate how to continue and how much to tell (not that there was a lot, in any case) later. If even for this one moment in time, Emi allowed herself to rest in the steam and liquid heat.

Oooooooooooooooo

Usagi made a slight sound in triumph; she had unearthed her spare set of pajamas. She had been taking the time during which her guest was cleaning herself up to think of how to proceed next; should she confront Emi-san? And how much should she admit about herself? It did seem, after all, that they were both Senshi. But then again, that mentality didn't prove completely successful with Galaxia and her minions…What was the best course of action? Usagi pouted with indecision. Where was Luna? She needed some feline advice…

The subject in question chose this moment to appear, clad in towel, in the doorway. Usagi was at a lack of words for a moment. The girl before her was unrecognizable from what she had been an hour ago. If she hadn't known better, she would never have made the connection that the two were one in the same.

Her skin seemed to radiate warmth, and a soft golden glow. No longer was her face an ashen color, made such by dirt and cold. Her hair fell in ringlets down her smooth back. Her form was no longer emaciated, simply small and delicate. Her eyes were still clouded, though no from her physical state, but rather from some inner turmoil that was clearly visible on her face.

She sat down on the floor across from Usagi with a feline grace. Usagi knew better than to peg her for your average human, especially given the show she had stumbled upon in the park a mere three hours ago.

It was now or never; Usagi proceeded with caution:

"So…will you tell me who you are…Sailor Solaris?"

Author's note: Yay! I have a second chapter! College stress made me sick :( but I did gain time to write so I can live with the mild misery, bleh…please review! Hugs to my first reviewer :D


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